The Lancaster, Manchester, Sheffield Consortium for Fundamental Physics: Particle Physics, From the Universe to the LHC
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Particle physics is all about understanding the elementary building blocks of nature and their interactions. Over the years, physicists have developed the Standard Model of particle physics, which is extremely successful in describing a very wide range of natural phenomena from things as basic as how light works and why atoms form through to the complicated workings inside stars and the synthesis of nuclei in the first few minutes after the Big Bang. However, we know that the Standard Model is not the whole story for it leaves many questions unanswered. Our proposal focuses on these unanswered questions and the way that scientists hope to address them in the coming years using experiments like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) or observations like those that will be made using the Planck satellite.
The discovery at the LHC of a Higgs boson is a major milestone in our quest to understand the origin of mass. It is certainly not, however, the whole story. The LHC experiments are working hard to measure the properties of the particle they have discovered. They are also searching for new particles such as those predicted by supersymmetry. If supersymmetry is discovered then it offers the hope to explain the origin of the Dark Matter that makes up a large fraction of the material that is known to exist in the Universe. The scientists in our consortium will explore the theory of supersymmetry and dark matter. We will use data from experiments like the LHC to identify which of the many possible variants of supersymmetry are allowed by the data and to suggest new ways to explore those models in experiments. Any "new physics" produced at the LHC will be produced as a result of smashing two protons into each other, a very complicated environment, usually in association with "jets" of other particles. Members of our consortium will explore how we can make use of these jets to learn more about the associated new physics: the better we understand the environment in which new physics occurs, the more we are able to learn about the new physics itself. This is a complicated business that often necessitates computer simulations of particle collisions. Our members are experts in these simulations and have plans on how the make them more accurate, which is necessary if we are to make the most of the exciting data from the LHC.
The Standard Model of particle physics is also insufficient when it comes to explaining the early history of the Universe, when it was hot and dense. The evidence is now very strong that the history began with an era of accelerating expansion, called inflation. We are experts on inflation and its consequences. Inflation makes the Universe featureless, except for tiny quantum fluctuations that cause the density of matter and energy in the Universe to vary with position. These initially small variations grow to become observable effects. One effect is the formation of the billions of galaxies that populate the night sky. Another is to leave a tiny imprint on the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), a faint hum of microwave radiation in which the Universe is bathed. The CMB is being studied in exquisite detail by the Planck satellite, which was launched in 2009. We are at the forefront of interpreting the Planck data in the hope of pinning down which of the various theories of the early universe are ruled out and which remain viable. The deficiencies of the Standard Model extend still further for it does not explain the amount nor even the existence of ordinary matter. Our scientists will use this to constrain possible physics beyond the Standard Model and to do that they need to master the dynamics of the Universe shortly after the end of inflation. Last but not least, we hope to understand better the mysterious "Dark Energy" that drives the current and future acceleration of the Universe: one possibility is that it is because Einstein's theory of gravity is not quite right and that is something we will explore.
The discovery at the LHC of a Higgs boson is a major milestone in our quest to understand the origin of mass. It is certainly not, however, the whole story. The LHC experiments are working hard to measure the properties of the particle they have discovered. They are also searching for new particles such as those predicted by supersymmetry. If supersymmetry is discovered then it offers the hope to explain the origin of the Dark Matter that makes up a large fraction of the material that is known to exist in the Universe. The scientists in our consortium will explore the theory of supersymmetry and dark matter. We will use data from experiments like the LHC to identify which of the many possible variants of supersymmetry are allowed by the data and to suggest new ways to explore those models in experiments. Any "new physics" produced at the LHC will be produced as a result of smashing two protons into each other, a very complicated environment, usually in association with "jets" of other particles. Members of our consortium will explore how we can make use of these jets to learn more about the associated new physics: the better we understand the environment in which new physics occurs, the more we are able to learn about the new physics itself. This is a complicated business that often necessitates computer simulations of particle collisions. Our members are experts in these simulations and have plans on how the make them more accurate, which is necessary if we are to make the most of the exciting data from the LHC.
The Standard Model of particle physics is also insufficient when it comes to explaining the early history of the Universe, when it was hot and dense. The evidence is now very strong that the history began with an era of accelerating expansion, called inflation. We are experts on inflation and its consequences. Inflation makes the Universe featureless, except for tiny quantum fluctuations that cause the density of matter and energy in the Universe to vary with position. These initially small variations grow to become observable effects. One effect is the formation of the billions of galaxies that populate the night sky. Another is to leave a tiny imprint on the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), a faint hum of microwave radiation in which the Universe is bathed. The CMB is being studied in exquisite detail by the Planck satellite, which was launched in 2009. We are at the forefront of interpreting the Planck data in the hope of pinning down which of the various theories of the early universe are ruled out and which remain viable. The deficiencies of the Standard Model extend still further for it does not explain the amount nor even the existence of ordinary matter. Our scientists will use this to constrain possible physics beyond the Standard Model and to do that they need to master the dynamics of the Universe shortly after the end of inflation. Last but not least, we hope to understand better the mysterious "Dark Energy" that drives the current and future acceleration of the Universe: one possibility is that it is because Einstein's theory of gravity is not quite right and that is something we will explore.
Planned Impact
See the attached "Pathways to Impact" document for details.
This project has impact beyond the international scientific community mainly through the training of highly skilled graduate students and postdoctoral researchers and through extensive "outreach" activities of various kinds aimed at engaging directly with the general public, school children, teachers, policy makers and the media. Undergraduate teaching is also impacted beneficially by our research.
This project has impact beyond the international scientific community mainly through the training of highly skilled graduate students and postdoctoral researchers and through extensive "outreach" activities of various kinds aimed at engaging directly with the general public, school children, teachers, policy makers and the media. Undergraduate teaching is also impacted beneficially by our research.
Organisations
Publications
Roszkowski L
(2014)
Neutralino and gravitino dark matter with low reheating temperature
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Dickinson R
(2015)
Negative-frequency modes in quantum field theory
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
McDonald J
(2014)
Negative running of the spectral index, hemispherical asymmetry and the consistency of Planck with large r
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Dev P
(2015)
Natural Standard Model Alignment in the Two Higgs Doublet Model
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Dev P
(2017)
Natural Alignment in the Two Higgs Doublet Model
Bhupal Dev P
(2017)
Natural Alignment in the Two Higgs Doublet Model
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Darvishi N
(2020)
Natural Alignment in Multi-Higgs Doublet Models
Choudhury A
(2017)
Muon g - 2 and related phenomenology in constrained vector-like extensions of the MSSM
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Dimopoulos K
(2016)
Modelling Inflation with a Power-law Approach to the Inflationary Plateau
Dimopoulos K
(2016)
Modelling inflation with a power-law approach to the inflationary plateau
in Physical Review D
Fischer N
(2015)
Measurement of observables sensitive to coherence effects in hadronic Z decays with the OPAL detector at LEP
in The European Physical Journal C
Bhupal Dev P
(2014)
Maximally symmetric two Higgs doublet model with natural standard model alignment
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Darvishi N
(2021)
Maximally symmetric three-Higgs-doublet model
in Physical Review D
Burns D
(2015)
Matter quantum corrections to the graviton self-energy and the Newtonian potential
in Physical Review D
Ambrus V
(2015)
Massless rotating fermions inside a cylinder
Pilaftsis A
(2015)
Mass bounds on light and heavy neutrinos from radiative minimal-flavor-violation leptogenesis
in Physical Review D
Dickinson R
(2014)
Manifest causality in quantum field theory with sources and detectors
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Kowalska K
(2014)
Low fine tuning in the MSSM with higgsino dark matter and unification constraints
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Dimopoulos K
(2017)
Loop inflection-point inflation
Dimopoulos K
(2018)
Loop inflection-point inflation
in Astroparticle Physics
Pilaftsis A
(2016)
Looking for New Naturally Aligned Higgs Doublets at the LHC
Dasgupta M
(2018)
Logarithmic accuracy of parton showers: a fixed-order study
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Bewick G
(2020)
Logarithmic accuracy of angular-ordered parton showers
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Bezrukov F
(2015)
Living beyond the edge: Higgs inflation and vacuum metastability
in Physical Review D
Bélanger G
(2015)
Limits on dark matter proton scattering from neutrino telescopes using micrOMEGAs
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Darmé L
(2018)
Light dark sector at colliders and fixed target experiments
Darmé L.
(2018)
Light dark sector at colliders and fixed target experiments
in Proceedings of the 53rd Rencontres de Moriond - 2018 QCD and High Energy Interactions
Darmé L
(2018)
Light dark Higgs boson in minimal sub-GeV dark matter scenarios
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Akiba K
(2016)
LHC forward physics
in Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics
Choudhury A
(2015)
Less-simplified models of dark matter for direct detection and the LHC
Choudhury A
(2016)
Less-simplified models of dark matter for direct detection and the LHC
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Ilakovac A
(2014)
Lepton dipole moments in supersymmetric low-scale seesaw models
in Physical Review D
Dev P
(2014)
Leptogenesis constraints on the mass of right-handed gauge bosons
in Physical Review D
Lloyd-Stubbs A
(2019)
KSVZ axion model with quasidegenerate minima: A unified model for dark matter and dark energy
in Physical Review D
Bhupal Dev P
(2015)
Kadanoff-Baym approach to flavour mixing and oscillations in resonant leptogenesis
in Nuclear Physics B
Dimopoulos K
(2021)
Jointly modelling Cosmic Inflation and Dark Energy
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Dasgupta M
(2016)
Jet shapes for boosted jet two-prong decays from first-principles
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Dimopoulos K
(2018)
Is the Big Rip unreachable?
in Physics Letters B
Dasgupta M
(2021)
Investigating top tagging with Ym-Splitter and N-subjettiness
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Dimopoulos K
(2018)
Instant preheating in quintessential inflation with a -attractors
in Physical Review D
Dolan S
(2018)
Instability of the Proca field on Kerr spacetime
in Physical Review D
Winstanley E
(2016)
Instability of sphaleron black holes in asymptotically anti-de Sitter space-time
Winstanley E
(2016)
Instability of sphaleron black holes in asymptotically anti-de Sitter space-time
in Physics Letters B
Bewick G
(2022)
Initial state radiation in the Herwig 7 angular-ordered parton shower
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Dimopoulos K
(2017)
Initial conditions for inflation
in Astroparticle Physics
Dimopoulos K
(2016)
Initial conditions for inflation
Description | Progress on many fronts towards a better understanding of the universe, by developing theoretical models constrained by data from the LHC and cosmology experiments such as Planck. |
Exploitation Route | By continued research. |
Sectors | Education |
Description | Researchers supported by this award have been very active in outreach activities for the general public, schools and scientists from other fields. |
First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
Sector | Education |
Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |